About Open Water Swimming
Although most people now think of swimming as the indoor pool programme, competitive swimming has its roots very much in taking to the water outside.
Open Water Swimming rose to significance after the International Olympic Committee listed a 10 kilometre race as one of the events for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Open Water races can take place in any large outdoor body of water: seas, lakes, rivers, canals, reservoirs. The distance of each event varies from 1km to 80km, but at major competitive level, the typical distances are 5km, 10km and 25km.
Swimming in open water has a long and colourful history dating back as far as 36BC, when the Japanese organised the first open water races. The Romans held high-profile races in the Tiber, when thousands would crowd along the banks to watch and cheer. The Knights in the middle ages reputedly had to swim in full armour as one of their seven required agilities.
Although open water races had been held for over a hundred years it was not until 1986 that FINA, swimming’s world governing body, officially recognised the event again and added it to the international competition calendar.
At the 2008 Olympics, which was the sport’s Olympic debut, Great Britain stole the show and won three of the six available medals, two silvers going to David Davies and Keri-Anne Payne and a bronze to Cassie Patten. This event captured the interest and imagination of the public and participation in Open Water Swimming has rocketed.
This has been helped along by the British Gas Great Swim series. In 2008 there was only one Great Swim, over a mile, a mass participation event held in the beautiful Lake Windermere in the Lake District. It had 2,250 entries. Today there are four swims.
Hopefully this trend will continue as more people pull on their costumes and leave the pool behind in favour of the freedom that open water can offer.
Other areas that may be of interest
Useful?
72
